From the Beach: Pointy Things - Petrified Wood. Agate

[scepter1]

Not sure what these are... ?

From Puget Sound, found along a quarter mile of tidal beach, over the last year or so.

4 Petrified Wood pieces 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches.
1 Agate piece about 1 3/8 inches.


Rich.

 

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[The Grim Reaper]

Other than the agate piece which may be a Scraper the rest of the pieces look like water worn rocks.

 

[scepter1]

Other than the agate piece which may be a Scraper the rest of the pieces look like water worn rocks.

Washington archaeologists state that artifacts found on Puget Sound beaches that were made from petrified wood, and probably the agate, were brought here from Eastern Washington (from the other side of the Cascade Mountain range), or from the Columbia River/Oregon area. And of course being found on a tidal beach means all my arrowheads, scrapers, etc. 'everything' is water worn.

Besides obvious arrowheads, scrapers, etc. searching the 'pea gravel' beach means looking for anything larger than small gravel, anything that is not rounded like a marble or oval shaped, anything that has an un-natural shape, and anything else that doesn't 'belong there' - like petrified wood (see petrified wood arrowhead from the beach in photo below).

I've personally surface collected over a thousand specimens of petrified wood from 14 Eastern Washington locations, and several Columbia River locations -> petrified wood does not naturally have these fracture or wear patterns.

The very least they can be is something that was tossed because they weren't working out right or unfinished. Or maybe they are finished tools to extract oil from the fat of a sea lion, or to tenderize a goeduck, or ...

Rich.

 

[PrimitiveOne]

cool!

 

[scepter1]

Found another piece of petrified wood today

Went hunting again today between rain/wind squalls. Found another piece of petrified wood, this one has a higher quality interior. The agate shows flaking scars similiar to the agate gumdrop scrapers I've found here. I would bet that this this pretty carmel made quite a trip from the Saddle Mountains, Vantage area, of Eastern Washington.

Rich.

 

[Twitch]

Rich - tools, or potential tools like these can be hard to call without actually handling them. Many stone tools were utilized that exhibit very little modification other a break here or there. I do think it' important to realize what is native lithos and what is not. If it's not native than by definition is was brought there.

Joe

 

[scepter1]

This site has a mixture of materials, local and brought in. In order of volume, 'local' basalt makes up about 75% of what I find. The materials are complete points, brokes, and a lot of flakes from:

Basalt (local)
Agate (brought in and maybe local)
Jasper (brought in and maybe local)
Petrified Wood (brought in)
Chert/Flint (brought in)
Obsidian (brought in)
Quartz crystal (brought in)

I also find squarish shaped petrified wood and agate blanks / rough materials that were brought in. Some petrified wood blanks and an agate blank are below:

Rich.